


Meet You on the Other Side

by starlit_cities



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Missing in Action
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-05
Updated: 2012-12-05
Packaged: 2017-11-20 09:13:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/583696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlit_cities/pseuds/starlit_cities
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been 48 days.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meet You on the Other Side

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ciaimpala](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=ciaimpala).



> Title from the song "Just Breathe" by Pearl Jam.
> 
> For ciaimpala who won me ages ago in an auction. Thank you for being a saint.

It started like this: Steve got a call and he went. Because that's what Steve does, that's who he is. Danny can't fault him for that. Except for now. Right now he hates Steve. Hates that he's patriotic to a fault. Hates that he always does the right thing. Hates that refused to leave a man behind.

It's been 48 days. 48 days since there was a knock on the door. A knock that Grace answered. Danny doesn't think he'll ever be able to forgive himself for that. The cry she let lose when she saw to Naval officers in full uniform at the door still echoes in his mind. For days after the telephone had rung nonstop. Women from the FRG calling to see if he needed anything, to check in on Grace, to see when was a good time to drop off a meal.

48 days. Steve has 317 left to find his way back to Danny before he's declared dead. Before there's a whole bunch of paper work and another wave of calls and door knocks from well-meaning women.

Danny's decided that today is a bed-all-day kind of day. There's no urgent case that needs his attention at the office. Grace has the day off from school for some sort of teacher work day. So really bed seems just fine to him. There's a knock on the front door that drags him from his wallowing. It's probably for the best.

"Danno!" Grace yells. It's not just that Danny refuses to let Grace answer the door anymore it's also that she's terrified of it too. He rolls out of bed and pads down the stairs to the door. It's only Chin with a six-pack and a milkshake for Grace. Danny doesn't say anything, just steps out of the way and lets him enter.

**

Danny doesn't watch the news anymore. He probably should. Nine times out of ten the reporters know things before the military has time to let it trickle down the chain of command. But it can't watch it because the massive fuck-up that had Steve missing had been just a blurb scrolling across the bottom of the screen and he hadn't paid attention. It'd been background noise. It seems so wrong. That something that had taken away Grace's step-Steve and his...his whatever (boyfriend-fiancé-husband) was just a footnote because some trial of the century was taking place and all the reporters were shouting while the jury was deliberating. So they don't watch the news. But they do watch Paranorman and Wreck-It Ralph and Hotel Transylvania. And when Grace is in bed Danny watches old football and baseball games. Ones where he knows the outcome because when Steve gets home he won't want to know who won until he watches it himself.

Chin pops the tops off the beers and Danny puts on the '98 World Series between the Yankees and Padres. This kind of company he can manage. Chin doesn't try to make him talk or ask him how he's doing or if he's started to make plans for a future that doesn't involve Steve. He just sits on the couch with Danny and watches the game.

Grace brings out her crayons and a coloring book and sometimes they'll color with her. But today Grace only opens the book to stare at the first two pictures. Steve's name is signed at the bottom of one with the date on it. The day before he left. They'd stayed up late and Grace had fallen asleep while coloring. There's a giant blue line through her picture and sometimes she traces it with the tips of her fingers.

Kono keeps telling him he needs to talk to Grace about this, about what's happening. But he doesn't know how. What is he supposed to say? Because what if he tells her Steve is coming back and then there's another knock on the door, but this time because they found a body. And what if he tells her they should move on and next week Steve is on the door step.

 **

Grace locks herself in the master bedroom closet the nest weekend. Maybe she's not coping as well as Danny had thought.

"Monkey," he says, running his hand across the door, "open up. It's time for some lunch."

"I'm not hungry," is all she says.

She's in there all day and finally he calls Kono because she can't just live in there. And when he tells her that she's defiant as ever and he gets a glimpse of what she might be like at sixteen. Kono comes in and kicks him out of his own room as she sits with her back against the closet door. He stays out in the hallway to listen in.

"Wanna tell me what's going on Gracie?" Kono asks.

"They can't have him."

"Who can't?" She doesn't ask who the 'him' is because Grace has locked herself in Steve's closet. It doesn't take a genius to figure it out.

"Mrs. Melleck and Mrs. Brandt keep telling Danno he has to make arrangements. I'm not a little kid. I know what the means. And he's not dead, Kono. He's not."

Kono sighs and leans her head back against the door. Grace is crying softly, nothing like the gut wrenching sobs from the first week of Steve being gone. But Kono thinks this might be worse. "I know little one, I know."

She sits there listening to Grace's hiccupped breathing for a long time.

"If I come out," Grace says some time later when the sun has almost set, "will you promise they won't take his stuff?"

"Promise," Kono says. She hears the click of the lock, but Grace doesn't open the door. Once Kono is standing and has shaken the feeling back into her butt she opens the door. Most of Steve's shirts are in a pile on the floor. Grace is curled up in them and she's wearing one of Steve's old SEAL shirts. Her eyes are puffy and her cheeks flushed, but she doesn't move when she sees Kono. Just keeps right on breathing in the scent from the shirts around her. Without a work Kono lays down next to her, arm going around Grace's waist to hold her tight.

**

Danny can't believe it when the three month mark hits. His thoughts only get darker. If Steve were alive, he thinks, he would've made it back by now. He'd be home and tucking in Grace at night and kissing Danny when he comes in from his morning swim and sneaking spinach into the omelets and a hundred different other things. But he's not here and for the first time Danny is starting to wonder if he ever will be again.

**

The only thing worse than the fact that Danny had let Grace open the door is that he hadn't kissed Steve good-bye. He'd been so angry. Steve had tried to explain that Reserves didn't mean retired, didn't mean he couldn't get called back when they needed him. So they'd fought. Or, well, Danny had fought and Steve had sighed and said he'd be back in a few weeks. A few weeks. That was 98 days ago.

**

Danny's getting the mail when the car pulls up. His heart stops because this is it. This is the two officers with their condolences and the information on when the flight with Steve's body is getting in. He watches, unable to move, as the back door of the car opens. A leg comes out first, followed by a hand on the door frame to help the passenger lever himself out of the car. And then he's staring at Steve. Steve with a bruised cheek and his arm in a back sling and his hair longer that Danny's ever seen it, but it's Steve. And he doesn't know what to do at first. But then Grace is shrieking and Steve is pulling her up with his uninjured arm and Danny's feet are suddenly moving.

"You bastard," he says wrapping his arms around Steve, Grace sandwiched in between them.

"I'm sorry," Steve says and kisses him.

**

Grace won't let Steve out of her sight, so the three of them end up sleeping in the king sized bed together. Grace is clutching to Steve's chest, but her feet are resting against Danny's thighs. Danny has an arm over Grace and holding onto Steve's side right below where his injured arm is resting. Steve's legs are tangled in with Danny's. Danny keeps his eyes on Steve, watching his chest rise and fall with each breath, his eyes fluttering as he dreams. He soaks it all in, commits it all to memory because he almost lost this.

Steve's eyes flicker open like he knows he's being watched. Which, granted, he probably does.

"Go to sleep, Danno," he tells him, "I'll be here in the morning." 

Danny doesn't cry, but he wants to. Steve's uninjured hand comes up to comb his fingers through Danny's hair and he falls asleep glad he didn't have to make it to 100 days.


End file.
